Could someone please get Josie Bloody Pagani expelled from the Labour Party so she isn’t seen by the MSM as the ‘go-to’ spokesperson for Labour. One can’t decide who is more to blame for yet another ‘authoritative’ statement and photo on the herald website this morning, the MSM or the publicity seeking Pagani. She should have been closed down long ago on matters pertaining to Labour Policy.
From the article..
“Pagani – who was an outspoken critic of the proposals for a target – said she would not stand for Labour again in the 2014 election, and had not been asked to.”
Some good news at least..
As to blame, well Pagani is to blame. You expect the Herald to go for Labour. The Herald is a right wing rag and is always looking for any story to undermine any party left of Attila the Hun. Pagani is the tool who feeds them the answers to construct these stories. You should not expect members of the left to help the Herald out.
Pagani should take a lesson from Cunliffe’s response, which serves to defuse the whole NZ Herald beat-up.
The article fudges the difference between having a general aim for gender balance with having a quota for women candidates.
Also, Pagani says the party should focus on things such as equal pay, but says nothing about the plight of women on low pay and benefits. And she says the focus should be on issues that affect most people’s lives (like gender pay equity) – similar to the whole idea of targeting the middle classes, and not the demonised beneficiaries and people struggling on low pay.
Yes, but saying “it was a matter for the party” would not get her mentioned in the newspaper.
Pagani speaks to get the limelight for herself, not to promote the Labour Party.
She is correctly identified by Martin Bradbury as a ‘Fox Democrat.’
So what drum is she beating? Is this because she didn’t want Cunliffe, so seeks to undermine the Party? It makes a bit of a nonsense of some of her words written here by her from a hilltop about unity etc…
Has she come down from the hilltop yet? And is this article the beginning of the Pagani Mosesesque commandments about how Labour should and should not be?
Has she taken the time to address the questions of the people who read her “response” kindly made into a thread topic because apparently she can’t hit reply in the original thread like everyone else?
She sounds, to me, like she is beating Shane Jone’s drum, still.
“He said I was probably the only Labour Party feminist that voted for Shane Jones.
How revealing is this statement – that those of us who supported an alternative contender in the leadership election are not welcome, that we don’t have a valid Labour voice, and that therefore, logically, we should be excluded.
So that puts the lie to David Cunliffe’s public claims during and after the contest that there would not be reprisals.
I reject the divisiveness and vilification that says you must be banished for voting the wrong way in a now-finished contest. It’s ugly. It’s self-defeating. Labour cannot win government by hunting heretics to demean and banish them.”
I think the article also shows how Pagani is not critised her overall expressed values taken out of context, but the way she responds to an issue – the context and the way her comments are produced and/or used selectively in the MSM.
I know you don’t know, but wondered what you thought was motivating her… cos it seems to me she is assisting with a media-wide view that Labour “can’t even agree with each other”, which she must know is self defeating?
I note the two folks quoted in the article were
Shane Jones, and
Josie Pagani (who stated she voted for Jones on this site)
Well, the choice of people to quote ultimately is the NZ Herald author and/or editors.
It may be that Josie P has some established networks with NZ Herald authors.
Going by Josie P’s angry post on TS – rebutting various claims – I think Josie P may not be aware of her own underlying response triggers. She may well think she is upholding traditoonal Labour values. She is someone who supported the Blairite approach to targeting the middle classes. So she continues to aim to appease the right wingers, without seeing it as a problem.
I don’t mean this as the cutting putdown it sounds like, but I honestly believe Josie Pagani has no firm idea of what leftwing/liberal principles are, what her own principles are, how her statements are used by the media to undermine Labour, or how to communicate ideas so that she doesn’t get used in that way.
Either that or she’s a rightwing fifth columnist mastermind whose chief interest is getting her own name into the paper. But I don’t think so.
The lack of left commentators is a problem though.
Trotter, Pagani, Bradbury…
If you look at the treatment of people such as Dame Anne by the Prime Minister when she did speak out, there is a real disincentive for left wingers with profile to put themselves into that role.
“assisting with a media-wide view that Labour “can’t even agree with each other””
Considering National’s dismal failure these past two terms, having the MSM run a divide and conquer strategy against the left is probably their only option for securing a third term.
I reject the divisiveness and vilification that says you must be banished for voting the wrong way in a now-finished contest. It’s ugly. It’s self-defeating. Labour cannot win government by hunting heretics to demean and banish them.”
Nothing to do with it as far as I can see. Just the wish that Labour representatives represent Labour values and beliefs and the reaction of the left when they repeatedly don’t.
…she would not stand for Labour again in the 2014 election, and had not been asked to.”…
I’m going to chalk that up as a victory for the flaxroots left. (Nobody rain on my parade with alternative scenarios okay? I need the political optimism).
Labour’s media strategy should include “grooming” people who will become useful “commentators”. The media needs “commentators” and Pagani seems accessible and available.
The Labour media teams over the past few years have been shite. Hopefully it will improve under the new regime.
I cringe when I hear about Media Training….no doubt it is necessary to some degree but it reminds me of Grima Wormtongue in LOR….sometimes it is better to hear the reality from somebody who is just “you and me” rather than media trained drivel.
I do agree Labour has done badly with the media, I doubt that their methodology is any different to National, so either the methodology is wrong for Labour or its down to the message and messengers. Yes it needs to be sorted.
Modifications I would like to see are “the right to work” extended to “the right to work for a living,” and the right to secure dwelling included in the human rights section.
I would like to see adherence to these principles as a precondition for standing for Labour, and I would also like to see them set as the standard that policies, press statements and so on must meet. That is to say, policies etc. should at best strongly support them and at least not work against them.
The Labour Party principles are listed on their website:
Thank you Olwyn. I should have been more clear. I wasn’t looking for a Monsanto style mission statement e.g. “Monsanto is an agricultural company. We help farmers grow yield sustainably so they can be successful, produce healthier foods…” (who could disagree with any of that)
I was looking for principles communicated in both policy and follow through in action, to the electorate. The statement for instance that the natural resources of NZ belong to all the people of NZ. That there has some big implications of deep sea drilling and other mining right there.
Sorry. I didn’t mean to insult you by suggesting you may not know these principles, I just wanted to draw attention to exactly what they are. For one thing, they are put forward as “principles,” not as “branding,” and should be treated as such. I too want to see the flow from principle to policy to action from Labour. It offends me when politicians appear to treat the party principles merely as a form of branding.
Labour is a “broad church”, one which I no longer frequent. But as a past member, I follow it’s antics. You may not like or agree with Pagani, but as long as we live in a democracy, people such as her have a right to speak out.
I prefer to sit on the sidelines and criticize the current administration, and occasionally, the odd “lefty” when they show hues of blue, aka, David Shearer and his beneficiary bashing.
As for Shane Jones, he represents the wealthy Maori, who have “farmed out” their quotas. So much for giving employment to Maori, or training todays youth, when foreign fishers will provide cheap labour to do their jobs. It also makes it easier to turn a blind eye to the over-fishing that is going on in our waters. A convenient accompaniment for many of National’s policies.
she does have a right to speak out as do we all. BUT when you know your speaking out will be listened to due to your privileged position in relation to the media you have responsibilities.
I don’t go to their church anymore either. Will, when you and I speak out there are no ripples.
Having read the piece, it’s not a blog, but a bleat. Personally I would prefer to see the best person living in the electorate challenge for that seat, without the various outside representatives being helicoptered in. I’m still in favour of those standing in an electoral seat being barred from the list.
Then, and only then do we look at the make up of the list.
Right now Labour needs a serious clean out if it wants to re-claim the left.
Of course to have good local candidates standing in local seats, you need to have strong electoral organisations to find, mentor and support the candidates. Sometimes that’s a problem, right there.
And you need previous or non-performing candidates who are willing (or be made to be willing) to step aside and make way. Another problem, right there.
I also despaired when I saw today’s Herald article featuring Josie Pagani yet again. While she, like everyone, has the right to express her opinion etc (and I certainly don’t agree that she should be expelled from the LP), her continual appearance as a supposed authority on the LP leaves me cold.
Hopefully things will change with Simon Cunliffe’s appointment as David Cunliffe’s chief media person. According to this article he starts his new job next Monday, 13 January, so I hope that he hits the ground running.
PS – If Josie was available for the Herald article, presumably she is no longer on holiday. Would be ‘nice’ if she had the manners to reply to the comments on the post on here, where she was given the opportunity of right of reply at her request. Not holding my breath ….
Hi Tracey, I went back to the Google search I did on Simon Cunliffe but could not find amy SST compilation for him similar to the ODT one. Various other references etc, but no identifiable SST ones. I also went to the Stuff site, and searched for Simon Cunliffe and that brought up a whole swag, so suggest you do the same. (Could not work how to get a link to the search.)
His bio is quite broad though, in terms of both journalism and wider interests. He wrote a play a year or so ago – The Truth Game – that was performed at Circa in Wellington in 2012, and in Dunedin. He also appears to have done theatre reviews for the Listener for a time; and also a Wine blog for the ODT. He was also David Cunliffe’s Press Secretary in the early 2000s when David C was a Minister, so he is familiar with government.
..for ‘services to follicles’..as i understand it..
..and as an aside/apropos of not much..:..my celtic-peasant genes gave me a sturdy head of hair..
..(and in the past i have called out dunne..for a wave/pompadour-smackdown..)
..but the combination of my general distaste for dunne..and all about him..
..and the appearance of that character ‘barry’ on that (why is it so?) kinda compelling trash-reality-show where vultures cluster to paw over/buy others’ possessions..out of abandoned lockers..
..dual-mental-pictures of dunne/’barry’ running their hands thru their silvered/wavy-locks..(shudder..!..)
..has led me to decide to ditch (what has become in my eyes) the aging-roue/pimp-look..
..and i have gone back to the earlier/punkier days of the number two…
..and i hafta say..i am glad i am here..it’s a nice spot..
..(and as i said..that is really all ‘apropos of not much’..eh..?..)..i did warn you..!)
The Labour party is at the vanguard of social change, or should be. Worrying about fossils with antediluvian attitudes would mean that no social change would have happened in as much as social change happens with political groups’ inputs.
We’d still be back there with slavery, women being men’s chattels, racial, sexual, and gender discrimination and all the other snake skins that we have sloughed off over the centuries.
Remember this- there is a high correlation between mysogyny and homophobia. If a person doesn’t like Labour because (usually) he doesn’t like our objective to have real equality for women, then he probably won’t like us for our stand against equal rights and opportunities for the gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender communities.
I read last night a biography of Dan Long, a former president of the PSA, who died in 1976. His life story was a wake-up call and an affirmation, too, of how far we have come in a century in terms of our maturing attitudes. In “White Collar Radical” the targets of the antediluvian fossils were ‘conchies’, communists, left wingers, liberals, women, Catholics, the Irish, workers, unionists, Labour members, intellectuals, among others. The perpetrators included all, or elements of, the Catholic Church, Fascists, the RSA, the Labour Party, the papers, local mayors, the Protestant Businessman’s Association, union leaders like FP Walsh, the SIS etc etc etc.
I’m proud to be a member of a party which is there at the forefront of change away from the past and its bigotry, persecution and blinkered thinking. I would never claim to speak for the Labour Party as an ordinary member. I have been a candidate and had the right then to represent it.
Claims by the Herald that ordinary members can speak for more than themselves need to be challenged. A member should not be media commentating on his or her own party. It is seen as non-objective for a variety of reasons and also risks interpretation and corruption by the media in serving its own ends.
“The Palestinians do not even have the right to have rights”
Conversation with Richard Falk, 13 December 2013
FRANK BARAT: John Dugard, your predecessor, was part of a team that wrote a report in 2009, in which he called what was happening in the West Bank, apartheid. What do you make about this concept, that is used more and more in various campaigns around the world?
RICHARD FALK: I think it’s more descriptive than any other way of talking about the situation. Each context of subjugation of a people has its own originality. There is a kind of temptation on the part of critics of those who invoke the idea of apartheid to say that it’s not like South Africa, it’s not based on race, there are differences. But if you look more closely you see that in certain respects its worse than in South African apartheid. For instance South Africa never had settler-only roads. They did not ever create such a pervasive structure of discrimination that the one that exists in the West Bank. The dual legal structure is very expressive of an ethnically based form of domination that deprives the Palestinians of rights while it endows the unlawful Israeli settlers with the full panoply of rights under Israeli law. The Palestinians don’t even have the right to have rights on one side and the Israelis that are present in the Occupied Territories in a manner that the International Court of Justice almost by unanimous opinion said was unlawful having this full legal protection under the rule of law that prevails in Israel for Israelis.
Here’s an in-depth comparative analysis of South African and Israeli Apartheid from The Guardian’s Middle East (and former South African) correspondent, Chris McGreal.
We are the towns
– with apologies to Stephen Sondheim
Why aren’t they rich?
Why so much fear?
We’re here so close to the ground,
They rule from the air.
We are the towns.
More to it than this?
As debt is accrued
So many lies thrown around
So easy to prove
And what of the towns?
So many sad towns.
It seems someone stopped, opening doors
Instead they stand there and shout, its their world not yours,
Facing election again, the puppets all stare,
Blurring the lines,
No one is there.
Play up the farce?
But build up the fear.
The MSM tell you all what you want.
The message is clear.
And what of the towns?
Those wonderful towns.
We’re fighting back here.
Volumes of text
Profoundly unclear
We’re losing more than we’re gaining
Is that really fair?
And what of the towns?
Those critical towns.
It changes this year.
Timely, last nights movie “the reader” posses the question re moral vs legal. http://entartetemusik.blogspot.co.nz/2009/02/moral-controversy-reader.html
Bruno Ganz, as a law professor, asks his class (and the audience) to consider not whether some was right or wrong, but whether it was legal.
Professor Rohl: Societies think they operate by something called morality, but they don’t. They operate by something called law.
Unfortunately this is the case, and when pollies get into trouble they revert immediately that ” no laws were broken” as their defense.
Yes, apparently Graham Mac has decided to have a go at Brown through the same charges Banks got caught out by,(knowingly filing a false return),
Can’t see myself donating to this latest of crusades as i did for the pleasure of seeing Banks face the consequences of His actions,
i can see a long drawn out legal process ahead for Graham Mac where He is likely to be given a lesson in the niceties written into the Law which usually gives to those with the coin able to hire the best of Barristers an ‘out’,
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What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Elizabeth Eades, Rheumatologist, Monash University Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune illness, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks itself. Lupus can affect virtually any part of the body, although it most commonly affects the skin, joints and kidneys. The symptoms ...
A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
Dying is a natural part of life, like updating your Wof or seeing your hairdresser, but without the word-of-mouth recs that help guarantee a good service. What if we changed that? Dying Reviews received by The Spinoff have had the names of organisations redacted while Hospice NZ collects further data. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Mike Lewinski/Flickr, CC BY On any clear night, if you gaze skywards long enough, chances are you’ll see a meteor streaking through the sky. Some nights, however, are better than others. At ...
Despite having no bars or other designated spaces for lesbians, Auckland boasts a small but mighty lesbian museum. So how did it get here? The past 18 months has brought increasing hostility towards the queer community across Aotearoa. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s anti-trans rally in Tamaki Makaurau last March led to a ...
Poneke Antifascist Coalition has invited Wellingtonians to stand in solidarity with the Kanak people at 12pm today outside the French Embassy in Wellington. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Layton, Visiting Fellow, Strategic Studies, Griffith University Drones are the signature technology of the Ukraine war. A few miniature aircraft designs were used in the war’s early days, but an incredible array of drones have now evolved. There are different types, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Slee, Associate Professor, Clinical Academic Neurologist, Flinders University Francisco Gonzelez/Unsplash Migraine is many things, but one thing it’s not is “just a headache”. “Migraine” comes from the Greek word “hemicrania”, referring to the common experience of migraine being predominantly ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lee White, Senior Lecturer and Horizon Fellow, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney Australia was slow to introduce minimum building standards for energy efficiency. The Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) only came into force in 2003. Older homes ...
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Could someone please get Josie Bloody Pagani expelled from the Labour Party so she isn’t seen by the MSM as the ‘go-to’ spokesperson for Labour. One can’t decide who is more to blame for yet another ‘authoritative’ statement and photo on the herald website this morning, the MSM or the publicity seeking Pagani. She should have been closed down long ago on matters pertaining to Labour Policy.
@cc..yeah..that one had me chewing the table-leg..
(i had to laugh at tho’:
..pagani:..i won’t be standing for labour again..and i haven’t been asked..)
..but did you see perhaps the most egregious-example of a bought/owned corporate-media..
..in quite some time..?
..stuff has an ‘opinion-piece’…banging on about how wonderfully-served (pun-intentional) we all are by our banks/banking-system..(!)
..i instantly hunted for the name of the hack/access-media journalist that had penned this tripe..
..and guess what..?
..it was written by the head of the banking cartel..(!)
..it is a total advertorial..
..and stuff has it up as an ‘opinion-piece’..
..craven sell-outs..eh..?
..phillip ure..
From the article..
“Pagani – who was an outspoken critic of the proposals for a target – said she would not stand for Labour again in the 2014 election, and had not been asked to.”
Some good news at least..
As to blame, well Pagani is to blame. You expect the Herald to go for Labour. The Herald is a right wing rag and is always looking for any story to undermine any party left of Attila the Hun. Pagani is the tool who feeds them the answers to construct these stories. You should not expect members of the left to help the Herald out.
Here’s the link, anyway. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11183231
Pagani should take a lesson from Cunliffe’s response, which serves to defuse the whole NZ Herald beat-up.
The article fudges the difference between having a general aim for gender balance with having a quota for women candidates.
Also, Pagani says the party should focus on things such as equal pay, but says nothing about the plight of women on low pay and benefits. And she says the focus should be on issues that affect most people’s lives (like gender pay equity) – similar to the whole idea of targeting the middle classes, and not the demonised beneficiaries and people struggling on low pay.
Yes, but saying “it was a matter for the party” would not get her mentioned in the newspaper.
Pagani speaks to get the limelight for herself, not to promote the Labour Party.
She is correctly identified by Martin Bradbury as a ‘Fox Democrat.’
pagani is/as‘Fox Democrat’..
heh..!
phillip ure..
So what drum is she beating? Is this because she didn’t want Cunliffe, so seeks to undermine the Party? It makes a bit of a nonsense of some of her words written here by her from a hilltop about unity etc…
Has she come down from the hilltop yet? And is this article the beginning of the Pagani Mosesesque commandments about how Labour should and should not be?
Has she taken the time to address the questions of the people who read her “response” kindly made into a thread topic because apparently she can’t hit reply in the original thread like everyone else?
She sounds, to me, like she is beating Shane Jone’s drum, still.
“He said I was probably the only Labour Party feminist that voted for Shane Jones.
How revealing is this statement – that those of us who supported an alternative contender in the leadership election are not welcome, that we don’t have a valid Labour voice, and that therefore, logically, we should be excluded.
So that puts the lie to David Cunliffe’s public claims during and after the contest that there would not be reprisals.
I reject the divisiveness and vilification that says you must be banished for voting the wrong way in a now-finished contest. It’s ugly. It’s self-defeating. Labour cannot win government by hunting heretics to demean and banish them.”
I don’t know what motivates, Josie P.
I think the article also shows how Pagani is not critised her overall expressed values taken out of context, but the way she responds to an issue – the context and the way her comments are produced and/or used selectively in the MSM.
I know you don’t know, but wondered what you thought was motivating her… cos it seems to me she is assisting with a media-wide view that Labour “can’t even agree with each other”, which she must know is self defeating?
I note the two folks quoted in the article were
Shane Jones, and
Josie Pagani (who stated she voted for Jones on this site)
Well, the choice of people to quote ultimately is the NZ Herald author and/or editors.
It may be that Josie P has some established networks with NZ Herald authors.
Going by Josie P’s angry post on TS – rebutting various claims – I think Josie P may not be aware of her own underlying response triggers. She may well think she is upholding traditoonal Labour values. She is someone who supported the Blairite approach to targeting the middle classes. So she continues to aim to appease the right wingers, without seeing it as a problem.
I don’t mean this as the cutting putdown it sounds like, but I honestly believe Josie Pagani has no firm idea of what leftwing/liberal principles are, what her own principles are, how her statements are used by the media to undermine Labour, or how to communicate ideas so that she doesn’t get used in that way.
Either that or she’s a rightwing fifth columnist mastermind whose chief interest is getting her own name into the paper. But I don’t think so.
The lack of left commentators is a problem though.
Trotter, Pagani, Bradbury…
If you look at the treatment of people such as Dame Anne by the Prime Minister when she did speak out, there is a real disincentive for left wingers with profile to put themselves into that role.
Manning, (Gordon) Campbell, Kelsey, Gould, McCarten, …..
Minto, Kelly, Harawira, …
what has happened to tapu misa..?
..i like her work..
phillip ure..
@ p ure about Tapu Misa
Last article I could find was Feb 2013
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?objectid=10865952
Ah. Thank you, phillip. I was trying to remember her name – she hasn’t had an article out for a while.
would love to have seen Gordon Campbell asked on some of these tv shows about oil drilling.
what’s up with Pagani’s new website?
She’s a one woman campaign for……..????????????
The Nats between Farrar, Slater and Hooton, and the journos they are cosy with seem to do communication fairly well…
I suppose we don’t want an ‘insert name here’ left, but at least some cohesion would be nice…
Armstrong.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/columnists/dave-armstrong/
https://twitter.com/malosilima
“assisting with a media-wide view that Labour “can’t even agree with each other””
Considering National’s dismal failure these past two terms, having the MSM run a divide and conquer strategy against the left is probably their only option for securing a third term.
That’s a theme the corporate media likes to pursue and that Pagani is prepared to sacrifice so she gets media attention.
Josie Pagani motivates Josie Pagani
The Century of the Self by Adam Curtis
um..!..tracey..looking from out here..
..it doesn’t seem labour are ‘hunting’ and ‘demeaning’ pagani..(for past party neo-lib-sins(?)..)
..’cos if they were..that would be setting a new benchmark in scapegoating..
..pagani wasn’t a minister in a govt that beat the neo-lib drum (she admittedly favours)..
..she wasn’t one of those serially booting the poorest in the guts..for those nine long years..
..(tho’ as a person..she did/does..)
..if labour are hunting for scapegoats for their role in getting us into the shit-hole we currently are/need to climb out of..
..there is a raft of candidates for that role..
..and a disturbingly large number of them are still staring out at us from the labour seats in parliament..
..saying:..’trust us..we care..!..’
..eh..?
phillip ure..
I agree, that Labour doesn’t seem to be hunting and demeaning Pagani, but it could be construed that she is hunting and demeaning Labour?
@ tracey..
..aye..
..at this point in time..
..there could not be a worse ‘spokesperson’ for the labour party..
..and of course..her views are never rebutted by the real spokespeople in labour..
….are they..
..so they just get to stand/hang stinking in the air..
..w.t.f. is it with that..?..
..is englishs’ most effective-barb in parliament..true..?
..that there are no rebuttals from labour..
..because ‘as a political party..labour does not know where it stands’..
..there is more than a grain of truth in that..
..especially with so many of labours’ front-bench having that long history of being ..
..ideologically..in ‘the pagani-camp’..
..and we haven’t seen any volte-faces on their previous words/actions from any of these individuals..to date..
..have we..?
..so englishs’ claim still stands/hangs stinking up the air..
..at this point is time..most would grasp to (honestly) portray what labour stands for..
..go on..have a go..
..phillip ure..
I reject the divisiveness and vilification that says you must be banished for voting the wrong way in a now-finished contest. It’s ugly. It’s self-defeating. Labour cannot win government by hunting heretics to demean and banish them.”
Nothing to do with it as far as I can see. Just the wish that Labour representatives represent Labour values and beliefs and the reaction of the left when they repeatedly don’t.
+1
…she would not stand for Labour again in the 2014 election, and had not been asked to.”…
I’m going to chalk that up as a victory for the flaxroots left. (Nobody rain on my parade with alternative scenarios okay? I need the political optimism).
Labour’s media strategy should include “grooming” people who will become useful “commentators”. The media needs “commentators” and Pagani seems accessible and available.
The Labour media teams over the past few years have been shite. Hopefully it will improve under the new regime.
And the commentators need to keep at least one thing in mind and that is what Pascal’s Bookie has noted:
http://thestandard.org.nz/josie-pagani-replies/#comment-753124
good spotting/highlighting/heads-up-ing there..
..mr j nald..
phillip ure..
I cringe when I hear about Media Training….no doubt it is necessary to some degree but it reminds me of Grima Wormtongue in LOR….sometimes it is better to hear the reality from somebody who is just “you and me” rather than media trained drivel.
I do agree Labour has done badly with the media, I doubt that their methodology is any different to National, so either the methodology is wrong for Labour or its down to the message and messengers. Yes it needs to be sorted.
Really simple questions which Labour needs to answer and hasn’t enough
1) What principles do you stand for
2) What is your 10 year vision for NZ
3) How are you going to deliver it
Cunliffe is an excellent orator and hits the bullseye over and over again when he stays on this tack.
The Labour Party principles are listed on their website:
http://www.labour.org.nz/about
Modifications I would like to see are “the right to work” extended to “the right to work for a living,” and the right to secure dwelling included in the human rights section.
I would like to see adherence to these principles as a precondition for standing for Labour, and I would also like to see them set as the standard that policies, press statements and so on must meet. That is to say, policies etc. should at best strongly support them and at least not work against them.
Thank you Olwyn. I should have been more clear. I wasn’t looking for a Monsanto style mission statement e.g. “Monsanto is an agricultural company. We help farmers grow yield sustainably so they can be successful, produce healthier foods…” (who could disagree with any of that)
I was looking for principles communicated in both policy and follow through in action, to the electorate. The statement for instance that the natural resources of NZ belong to all the people of NZ. That there has some big implications of deep sea drilling and other mining right there.
Sorry. I didn’t mean to insult you by suggesting you may not know these principles, I just wanted to draw attention to exactly what they are. For one thing, they are put forward as “principles,” not as “branding,” and should be treated as such. I too want to see the flow from principle to policy to action from Labour. It offends me when politicians appear to treat the party principles merely as a form of branding.
no insult meant and certainly none taken, cheers Olwyn. Your principles vs ‘mere’ branding comparison is very apt.
@ ennui..it isn’t a matter of good media-training..
..(that is just sticking lipstick on a pig..)
….the problem/need to do is what c.v details @ 1.3.2.1/above…
..’cos to most of us out here..
..labour are lost..
..stuck somewhere between two ideologies..
..a janus-faced party..
..phillip ure..
who has represented and appealled to those earning under $30k per annum in recent times, that “you and me”?
Labour is a “broad church”, one which I no longer frequent. But as a past member, I follow it’s antics. You may not like or agree with Pagani, but as long as we live in a democracy, people such as her have a right to speak out.
I prefer to sit on the sidelines and criticize the current administration, and occasionally, the odd “lefty” when they show hues of blue, aka, David Shearer and his beneficiary bashing.
As for Shane Jones, he represents the wealthy Maori, who have “farmed out” their quotas. So much for giving employment to Maori, or training todays youth, when foreign fishers will provide cheap labour to do their jobs. It also makes it easier to turn a blind eye to the over-fishing that is going on in our waters. A convenient accompaniment for many of National’s policies.
she does have a right to speak out as do we all. BUT when you know your speaking out will be listened to due to your privileged position in relation to the media you have responsibilities.
I don’t go to their church anymore either. Will, when you and I speak out there are no ripples.
Freedom of speech is not freedom from criticism.
Having read the piece, it’s not a blog, but a bleat. Personally I would prefer to see the best person living in the electorate challenge for that seat, without the various outside representatives being helicoptered in. I’m still in favour of those standing in an electoral seat being barred from the list.
Then, and only then do we look at the make up of the list.
Right now Labour needs a serious clean out if it wants to re-claim the left.
All good points.
Of course to have good local candidates standing in local seats, you need to have strong electoral organisations to find, mentor and support the candidates. Sometimes that’s a problem, right there.
And you need previous or non-performing candidates who are willing (or be made to be willing) to step aside and make way. Another problem, right there.
I also despaired when I saw today’s Herald article featuring Josie Pagani yet again. While she, like everyone, has the right to express her opinion etc (and I certainly don’t agree that she should be expelled from the LP), her continual appearance as a supposed authority on the LP leaves me cold.
Hopefully things will change with Simon Cunliffe’s appointment as David Cunliffe’s chief media person. According to this article he starts his new job next Monday, 13 January, so I hope that he hits the ground running.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1311/S00314/simon-cunliffe-to-be-labour-media-director.htm
PS – If Josie was available for the Herald article, presumably she is no longer on holiday. Would be ‘nice’ if she had the manners to reply to the comments on the post on here, where she was given the opportunity of right of reply at her request. Not holding my breath ….
Further to the above, I decided to google Simon Cunliffe and found this link to various articles of his on the Otago Daily Times.
I have only skimmed a couple so far, but like his writing style and thinking. .
.
you can find his writing a while ago in the SST?
Hi Tracey, I went back to the Google search I did on Simon Cunliffe but could not find amy SST compilation for him similar to the ODT one. Various other references etc, but no identifiable SST ones. I also went to the Stuff site, and searched for Simon Cunliffe and that brought up a whole swag, so suggest you do the same. (Could not work how to get a link to the search.)
His bio is quite broad though, in terms of both journalism and wider interests. He wrote a play a year or so ago – The Truth Game – that was performed at Circa in Wellington in 2012, and in Dunedin. He also appears to have done theatre reviews for the Listener for a time; and also a Wine blog for the ODT. He was also David Cunliffe’s Press Secretary in the early 2000s when David C was a Minister, so he is familiar with government.
I think that was always meant to be a ‘hit and run’. Certainly never expected any replying
I agree. Which is why she couldnt just hit reply like everyone else. She needed the limelight. Not about Labour or its values but her.
Heard David Cameron gave his hairdresser a gong in the new year handouts.Is this true? Or just a big joke?
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/shortcuts/2014/jan/07/david-camerons-hair-honours-mbe-lino-carbosiero
@ ffloyd..it’s true..
..for ‘services to follicles’..as i understand it..
..and as an aside/apropos of not much..:..my celtic-peasant genes gave me a sturdy head of hair..
..(and in the past i have called out dunne..for a wave/pompadour-smackdown..)
..but the combination of my general distaste for dunne..and all about him..
..and the appearance of that character ‘barry’ on that (why is it so?) kinda compelling trash-reality-show where vultures cluster to paw over/buy others’ possessions..out of abandoned lockers..
..dual-mental-pictures of dunne/’barry’ running their hands thru their silvered/wavy-locks..(shudder..!..)
..has led me to decide to ditch (what has become in my eyes) the aging-roue/pimp-look..
..and i have gone back to the earlier/punkier days of the number two…
..and i hafta say..i am glad i am here..it’s a nice spot..
..(and as i said..that is really all ‘apropos of not much’..eh..?..)..i did warn you..!)
phillip ure..
I kind of see Dunne more as the Barry off Extras
if i were to cast dunne in a movie..
.(.going on the amount of damage he has done to this country/people..)
..i would have him play the lead in a bio-pic of/on petain..
phillip ure..
this is very very funny..
.and it will have you laughing like a drain..
http://www.alternet.org/video/watch-daily-show-blasts-cable-anchors-over-unwarranted-legal-pot-hysteria
phillip ure..
Nick Clegg compared to a condom by Boris Johnston.
Maybe that’s why dunne hair do looks the way it does.
That’s the Boris Johnson who has today been revealed as wanting water cannon ready on London streets by this summer, right?
And I don’t think it’s for keeping the rioters moist and cool.
boris johnson is like alec baldwin..
..sometimes funny..
..but just another rightwing arsewipe..
phillip ure..
The Labour party is at the vanguard of social change, or should be. Worrying about fossils with antediluvian attitudes would mean that no social change would have happened in as much as social change happens with political groups’ inputs.
We’d still be back there with slavery, women being men’s chattels, racial, sexual, and gender discrimination and all the other snake skins that we have sloughed off over the centuries.
Remember this- there is a high correlation between mysogyny and homophobia. If a person doesn’t like Labour because (usually) he doesn’t like our objective to have real equality for women, then he probably won’t like us for our stand against equal rights and opportunities for the gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender communities.
I read last night a biography of Dan Long, a former president of the PSA, who died in 1976. His life story was a wake-up call and an affirmation, too, of how far we have come in a century in terms of our maturing attitudes. In “White Collar Radical” the targets of the antediluvian fossils were ‘conchies’, communists, left wingers, liberals, women, Catholics, the Irish, workers, unionists, Labour members, intellectuals, among others. The perpetrators included all, or elements of, the Catholic Church, Fascists, the RSA, the Labour Party, the papers, local mayors, the Protestant Businessman’s Association, union leaders like FP Walsh, the SIS etc etc etc.
I’m proud to be a member of a party which is there at the forefront of change away from the past and its bigotry, persecution and blinkered thinking. I would never claim to speak for the Labour Party as an ordinary member. I have been a candidate and had the right then to represent it.
Claims by the Herald that ordinary members can speak for more than themselves need to be challenged. A member should not be media commentating on his or her own party. It is seen as non-objective for a variety of reasons and also risks interpretation and corruption by the media in serving its own ends.
“The Palestinians do not even have the right to have rights”
Conversation with Richard Falk, 13 December 2013
FRANK BARAT: John Dugard, your predecessor, was part of a team that wrote a report in 2009, in which he called what was happening in the West Bank, apartheid. What do you make about this concept, that is used more and more in various campaigns around the world?
RICHARD FALK: I think it’s more descriptive than any other way of talking about the situation. Each context of subjugation of a people has its own originality. There is a kind of temptation on the part of critics of those who invoke the idea of apartheid to say that it’s not like South Africa, it’s not based on race, there are differences. But if you look more closely you see that in certain respects its worse than in South African apartheid. For instance South Africa never had settler-only roads. They did not ever create such a pervasive structure of discrimination that the one that exists in the West Bank. The dual legal structure is very expressive of an ethnically based form of domination that deprives the Palestinians of rights while it endows the unlawful Israeli settlers with the full panoply of rights under Israeli law. The Palestinians don’t even have the right to have rights on one side and the Israelis that are present in the Occupied Territories in a manner that the International Court of Justice almost by unanimous opinion said was unlawful having this full legal protection under the rule of law that prevails in Israel for Israelis.
Read more….
http://lemuradesoreilles.org/2014/01/08/the-palestinians-do-not-even-have-the-right-to-have-rights-conversation-with-richard-falk/
Cheers Morrissey.
Here’s an in-depth comparative analysis of South African and Israeli Apartheid from The Guardian’s Middle East (and former South African) correspondent, Chris McGreal.
Part One – here…….http://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/feb/06/southafrica.israel
and Part Two – here…….http://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/feb/07/southafrica.israel
John Dugard himself also sees striking similarities
Here……..http://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/feb/23/israelandthepalestinians.unitednations
here……..http://mondoweiss.net/2011/11/the-law-and-practice-of-apartheid-in-south-africa-and-palestine.html and here……..http://epalestine.blogspot.co.nz/2009/08/epalestine-john-dugard-two-states-or.html
Sasha Polakow-Suransky on Israel’s very close alliance with Apartheid South Africa during 70s and 80s here……..http://mideastafrica.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/05/10/gold_stones_glass_houses#sthash.n2U4Auq0.dpbs
Norman Finkelstein on the fact that the SA Apartheid analogy is by no means controversial among sectors of the Israeli elite, here……..http://www.counterpunch.org/2006/12/28/the-ludicrous-attacks-on-jimmy-carter-s-book/ and here……..http://www.democracynow.org/2007/1/8/norman_finkelstein_vs_gil_troy_on
We are the towns
– with apologies to Stephen Sondheim
Why aren’t they rich?
Why so much fear?
We’re here so close to the ground,
They rule from the air.
We are the towns.
More to it than this?
As debt is accrued
So many lies thrown around
So easy to prove
And what of the towns?
So many sad towns.
It seems someone stopped, opening doors
Instead they stand there and shout, its their world not yours,
Facing election again, the puppets all stare,
Blurring the lines,
No one is there.
Play up the farce?
But build up the fear.
The MSM tell you all what you want.
The message is clear.
And what of the towns?
Those wonderful towns.
We’re fighting back here.
Volumes of text
Profoundly unclear
We’re losing more than we’re gaining
Is that really fair?
And what of the towns?
Those critical towns.
It changes this year.
FBI officially acknowledges it’s primary role is not one of law enforcement, but of ensuring the security of the establishment
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-01-07/fbi-admits-its-primary-focus-not-law-enforcement
The peace activists who burgled the FBI in 1971 revealing COINTELPRO spying on prominent Americans
Reminds me of the BSG saying: all this has happened before…and will happen again…
http://www.democracynow.org/2014/1/8/it_was_time_to_do_more
Politicians to replace faulty moral compass with new Ethical Sat Nav
Timely, last nights movie “the reader” posses the question re moral vs legal.
http://entartetemusik.blogspot.co.nz/2009/02/moral-controversy-reader.html
Bruno Ganz, as a law professor, asks his class (and the audience) to consider not whether some was right or wrong, but whether it was legal.
Professor Rohl: Societies think they operate by something called morality, but they don’t. They operate by something called law.
Unfortunately this is the case, and when pollies get into trouble they revert immediately that ” no laws were broken” as their defense.
I’ve noticed that especially from the right-wing politicians which is why I came up with:
Just because it’s legal doesn’t mean that it’s right.
Years only just begun and I’m already tired -_-
Bring on the Utopia already.
today i found what must be shortlisted for this years’ ‘most-arresting-headline-awards’..
..and it’s only the ninth of january..
..it comes in/from a story i linked to about the ex-wife of author cormac mccarthy…
“..After the disagreement – she pulled a gun from her vagina – and held it to her boyfriend’s head..”
whoar..!
..eh..?
phillip ure..
Phillip Ure
“…she pulled a gun from her vagina – and held it to her boyfriend’s head.”
Well, obviously you can’t shoot someone in the head with a baby.
@ adele..
..and there are so many unanswered questions..
..model and calibre not being least of them..
..it would also work as the opening (must-read-on!) line of a work of fiction..
…what would also be cool..would be a competition..
.seeing what people come up with..
..using that as the opening line..
..heh..!..
phillip ure..
Naughty, naughty…
…it was slippery when wet…and she dropped it…
If you were thinking of going for a swim at Mission Bay – don’t.
nat-rad is reporting that mcready is going after len brown next..
..and will file papers next week..
..over the $40,000 in (undeclared) free hotel rooms brown got during his two-year-long chueng mid-life crisis..
..phillip ure..
Yes, apparently Graham Mac has decided to have a go at Brown through the same charges Banks got caught out by,(knowingly filing a false return),
Can’t see myself donating to this latest of crusades as i did for the pleasure of seeing Banks face the consequences of His actions,
i can see a long drawn out legal process ahead for Graham Mac where He is likely to be given a lesson in the niceties written into the Law which usually gives to those with the coin able to hire the best of Barristers an ‘out’,
While a conviction for Banks means a definite expulsion from the Parliament as an MP, no such outcome can be said to be the fate of Brown as the Mayor so even with a conviction, if such were to occur, the victory may be somewhat hollow producing bragging rights only…